Families First Coronavirus Response Act Paid Leave Benefits
On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, The bill provides new employee leave benefits, including instituting paid sick leave options for employees who work for employers with fewer than 500 employees.
What Paid Leave Benefits Are Offered?
- 2 weeks of paid sick leave if you have, need to be diagnosed or are quarantined for coronavirus
- 2 weeks paid sick leave if you are caring for a family member impacted by the above
- 12 weeks paid sick leave if you’re caring for a child while their school is closed
Consequences for small or midsize companies
If you employ 500 or fewer employees, you will be required to offer these new paid leave benefits to your employees.
If you have 50 or fewer employees you may be exempted if paying sick leave would cause material financial harm to the business.
Businesses who pay sick leave will be reimbursed in full within three months through a payroll tax credit. The reimbursement will also cover the employer’s contribution to health insurance premiums during the leave. It’s fully refundable, which means that if the amount that employers pay workers who take leave is larger than what they owe in taxes, the government will send them a check for the remainder.
Congress is currently working on a $1 trillion relief plan to help Americans. The plan would allocate $300 billion for small business. We will keep you updated about this plan as soon as more information becomes available to us.